R.A. Hubbard to play on field at the school

When prep football season kicks off Aug. 31, R.A. Hubbard High will get to play its first on-campus game since consolidating with Hazlewood in 2009. The Chiefs host Hatton in the season opener.

Construction of the new football stadium at R.A. Hubbard is complete. The Chiefs have played their home games at what used to be Courtland High.

"We're proud to have it," said Vinson, who has been R.A. Hubbard's head football coach the past two seasons.

Vinson added: "It means a lot to the school and community, and it is less of a hassle now that we don't have to go off campus. It's a really nice facility -- one of the best around here. Everyone out here is excited about, and we're hoping to win a whole lot of games there."

An on-campus stadium at R.A. Hubbard was planned in 2009, but Lawrence County Board of Education Superintendent Heath Grimes said finding funds was an issue. The new stadium, which is located where the practice field once was, cost about $900,000.

Grimes said the construction was funded by federal stimulus money that had to be used by 2013.

"To finally have this in place is a good thing," Grimes said. "This is something that has been talked about, been promised, and is even mentioned in court documents. The community and the school deserve facilities they can be proud of, and we wanted to have this in place earlier, but we struggled to find money to spend on a stadium. But I'm glad we've got this project complete, because it's a nice facility."

The only flaw is parking, which is extremely limited. No additional parking was added at the Class 1A school, which has a daily average enrollment of 120.5 in grades 9-12.

Vinson was unsure of how overflow parking would be handled, but school officials have said that parking on the side of Jesse Jackson Parkway could be an option until other arrangements are made.

When consolidation went into effect, two of the state's most storied football programs, Hazlewood and R.A. Hubbard, were combined. The schools have a combined 16 state football championships.

Vinson hopes to carry on the football tradition of those two proud schools at R.A. Hubbard's new stadium.

"We want to keep the tradition Courtland and Hazlewood built alive, because that's something special," Vinson said. "But we want to keep on adding to that and continue to give our communities something to be proud of. We hope to do a lot of special things in that new stadium."